PeopleSoft Order to Cash Common Information 9.1 PeopleBook

Managing Conversations

This chapter provides an overview of conversations and discusses how to:

Set up conversations.
Enter and review conversations.

Understanding Conversations

Conversation pages track ongoing conversations with customer contacts. For example, you can track invoice and payment issues that you are trying to resolve, as well as other customer inquiries. You can link a conversation to a specific purchase order, invoice, contract, or receivables item. In addition, you can use the PeopleSoft notification feature to send an email to an interested party to announce that a new or existing conversation entry is available to review.

Use the conversations pages as needed to review and update past conversations or to record new ones. If you have ongoing contact or documentation that is related to the same subject or subject topic, you can create new entries for an existing conversation that contain the continued history of the discussion.

You can set up the conversation so that you review it after a specified number of days from the creation date, or you can have a supervisor review it. For review by a supervisor, the system automatically assigns the supervisor who is associated with the user profile of the person who created the entry.

You can also attach documents to a conversation, such as proof of delivery slips, bills of lading, spreadsheets, or text documents.

Customer Promise Tracking

Collectors and receivable managers are challenged with keeping track of outstanding customer payments and automating the follow up on unfulfilled promises. Streamlining of this business process enables users to identify the risk of future promises and to indicate that a pre-emptive follow up will be required for any new promises. A collections analyst can enter a promise to pay by a customer and track and manage that promise within the Conversations component.

Prior to entering a new promise date conversation in the Conversations component, you can predefine the number of days that will be tolerated past the promise date before you will take further action, the percentage of the payment amount that you are willing to accept, and select a broken promise action, as well as indicate that a user can override these values on the Promise Options page (Set Up Financials/Supply Chain, Product Related, Receivables, Credit/Collections, Promise Date Options.) These values appear as default field values in the Promise of Payment group box of the Conversations page.

Condition Monitor automatically processes promised payments. Condition Monitor selects the CPDR (Customer Promise Date Review) condition and processes the promised payment conversations that required a review and a creates appropriate action list items. Condition Monitor also automatically processes promised payments that have broken promises by selecting the CPDB (Customer Promise Date Broken) condition, which selects the broken promises and creates action list items if necessary. The Customer Promise Date Broken program will close promise date conversations with a status of broken, no promise date action, and no review scheduled after the promise date. It will also close promise date conversations when a user selects the Done check box on the Conversations page, which indicates that the broken promise was reviewed and no review date was selected after the promise date.

The CFLU (Conversations Follow Up) condition will not select promise date conversations. When a collections analyst creates a new conversation on the Conversations page and selects the Promise of Payment check box, the conversation is considered a promise date conversation and the promise status will be set to Open. Once a conversation is marked as a promise of payment conversation, the collections analyst must enter a promise date and the amount that the customer promised to pay in order to save the conversation.

Depending on the promise made by the customer and a review of this promise, the system will assign a Promise Status of:

Open
Kept
Broken
Cancelled
None

This status is used for conversations that are not promise date conversations.

The status of a conversation can be New, Open, or Closed. This table displays each of the promise statuses that are possible based on the status of the conversation.

	Conversation Status
Promise Status	New	Open	Closed
Open	X	X
Kept			X
Broken		X	X
Cancelled		X	X
None	X	X	X

The Promise Status is typically set and updated by Condition Monitor processing. When a promise date conversation is created, the promise status is set to Open. Condition Monitor will update the status to either Kept or Broken. Promise date conversations are closed manually by the user or automatically by the Condition Monitor program. These are the general rules governing the conversation status:

When a user creates a promise date conversation, the conversation status is New. When users want Condition Monitor to process the conversation for promise dates, they update the status of the promise date conversation to Open.
If the Condition Monitor evaluates a promise as Kept, the conversation will be closed.
If the Condition Monitor evaluates a promise as Broken with no broken promise action, the conversation will be closed.
If the Condition Monitor evaluates a promise as Broken and there is a broken promise action, the conversation remains open until the user selects Done check box to indicate that the action has been completed and closes the conversation.
Any user can open a closed conversation and manually override the promise status. If the user overrides the promise status to a status of Kept or Broken, the conversation can be closed. If the promise status is Open, then the conversation cannot be closed. If the promise status has been overridden to Cancelled, the conversation can still remain open.

A user can exclude a promise from being included in the metrics, mark a promise as fulfilled, or override an unfulfilled promise as fulfilled.

To override a promise status, a user must select the Override Promise Status check box and an override reason. A user can change the promise status and change the reason code multiple times, but you cannot change override status. This indicates that the promise status has been overridden by a user and has been changed automatically by Condition Monitor. If users make a mistake, they can select and save the appropriate status.

A broken promise action is based on a valid action, which you set up in the system. The user id for a broken promise action is associated with the user that receives an action item based on the broken promise action. If the user assigned to the broken promise action reviews the broken promise and selects the Done check box, the promise status is changes to broken and the conversation is closed.

If a payment is received, the system can set the action items for review or set a broken promise as completed and the action no longer appears on the user's action list. Metrics are reported for each customer based on a promise to pay status of Kept, Broken, and Open. However, metrics are not tracked for promise payments with a status of Cancelled, because these promises were intentionally cancelled with the intention of not recording or reporting them as a promise to pay. A history of the status changes is not collected or reported. This includes any history of manual overrides that change a status from Broken to Kept, Broken to Open, or Broken to Cancelled.

Users can create, update, and review promise date conversations on Conversations tab of the Collections Workbench in PeopleSoft Receivables (Accounts Receivable, Customer Accounts, Collections Workbench.)

See Conversations Tab.

Promise Review

In addition to assign a user an action item to review a broken promise, you can also ensure that a promise is reviewed by the appropriate personnel based on your selections in the Promise Review group box. You can select a review date, the review action required, which is usually an action performed prior to the promise date, and the user ID of the individual that you want to perform the review. The reviewer performs the review action and can, if necessary, indicate that a supervisor needs to review the promise. The reviewer can also indicate any follow up action that may be required and select the date that this action was completed. The promise date does not affect this date, because the conversation may need reviewing after the promise date.

See Entering Conversations.

See Setting Up Promise Date Options for a Customer.

See Managing Customer Conversations and Promises.

Setting Up Conversations

To set up conversations, use these components:

Conversation Subject Topics (SUBJECT_TOPIC_TBL).
Conversation Subjects (SUBJECT_TABLE).
Follow Up Actions (FOLLOW_UP_TABLE).
Keywords (KEYWORD_TABLE).

This section provides an overview of conversation setup and discusses how to establish conversation subjects.

Understanding Conversation Setup

Perform these tasks before entering conversations:

(Optional) Define subject topics on the Conversation Subject Topics page.
(Optional) Define subjects and assign subtopics on the Conversation Subjects page.
(Optional) Define follow-up actions for conversations.

When you define a conversation query by selecting a follow-up action, you limit the items that you can view to the items that are tagged for the specified follow-up.

Create as many follow-up actions as you need to categorize the actions that result from conversations with customers.

If you use the Condition Monitor process (AR_CNDMON) in Receivables, you can create rules to generate actions on the customer action list and send an email notification to the action owners who are specified in the rules.
(Optional) Define keywords to search for conversations.

When you enter a conversation, you can associate it with up to three keywords. Create as many keywords as you need to categorize all conversations with customers.
(Optional) Enter the file transfer protocol (FTP) site where you post file attachments for conversations in the URL field on the URL Maintenance page for the CUST_CONVER_ATT URL identifier.
For eBill Payment only, determine to whom you will be sending messages by subject within the organization.

For each subject, assign a unique role, and for each role assign the appropriate users. Users need to have valid email addresses to receive messages.

Pages Used to Set Up Conversations

Page Name	Definition Name	Navigation	Usage
Conversation Subject Topics	CONV_SUB_TOPIC_TBL	Set Up Financials/Supply Chain, Common Definitions, Customers, Conversation Subject Topics, Conversation Subject Topics	Define subtopics for conversation subjects.
Conversation Subjects	SUBJECT_TABLE	Set Up Financials/Supply Chain, Common Definitions, Customers, Conversation Subjects, Conversation Subjects	Define subjects for categorizing conversations.
Follow-Up Actions	FOLLOW_UP_TABLE	Set Up Financials/Supply Chain, Common Definitions, Customers, Conversation Follow-Up Actions, Follow-Up Actions Set Up Financials/Supply Chain, Product Related, Receivables, Credit/Collections, Follow-Up Action, Follow-Up Actions	Define a follow-up action to assign to a conversation, such as calling the customer again.
Keyword	KEYWORD_TABLE	Set Up Financials/Supply Chain, Common Definitions, Customers, Conversation Keywords, Keyword Set Up Financials/Supply Chain, Product Related, Receivables, Options, Keyword, Keyword	Define the keywords that you use for search criteria when you retrieve conversations.

Establishing Conversation Subjects

Access the Conversation Subjects page (Set Up Financials/Supply Chain, Common Definitions, Customers, Conversation Subjects, Conversation Subjects).

Subject Topic	Select a topic that further defines the subject. Topics enable you to organize conversation subjects in greater detail. The subject of an entry determines the topics that appear. You create topics on the Conversation Subject Topics page.
Role Name	Select the role of the person who is authorized to use the subject and to respond to customer emails that use the subject. You can assign a role name to a single individual or an entire group of individuals based on organizational needs. When an email is sent to a role name, every user assigned to the role receives the message. You use this option only with the Contact Us option in eBill Payment.
Qualifier	Select the type of references with which this subject is associated. Options are Buying Agreement, Contract, Document Number, Invoice Number, Item, Bill of Lading, Purchase Order Number, Payment ID, Quotation, RMA, and Sales Order.

Entering and Reviewing Conversations

This section provides an overview of conversation components, lists common elements, and discusses how to:

Enter conversations.
Associate conversations with references.
Attach files to conversations.
Send notifications of conversations.

Understanding Conversation Components

PeopleSoft provides several components to access the conversation pages. Each component provides different search criteria to help you locate conversation entries. This table describes the components for each menu option:

Menu Option	Description
Update Conversations	Use to create new conversations and to update existing ones. This component enables you to search by customer, conversation date, status, and a reference linked to the conversation, such as an invoice, receivables item, or purchase order.
Associate Keywords	Use to review or update conversations. This component enables you to search by customer, conversation status, and the keyword that is assigned to the conversation.
Define Follow Up Actions	Use to review or update conversations. This component enables you to search by customer, conversation status, and a follow-up action that is assigned to the conversation.
Select Conversation to Review	Use to review or update conversations. This component enables you to search by customer, conversation date, and status.
Need Supervisor Review	Use to review or update conversations. This component enables you to search by customer, conversation date, status, the supervisor review status, and the user ID of the individual who should review the conversation.

Common Elements Used in This Section

Status

Select the current status for the conversation. Values are:

Closed: Select when you complete the dialog with the customer. This status is informational only. You can change a closed conversation.

New: The system automatically assigns this when you create a new conversation, before anyone reviews or responds to it.

Open: Select when you review or respond to a new conversation.

Date

View the date that you entered the conversation.

Pages Used to Enter and Review Conversations

Page Name	Definition Name	Navigation	Usage
Conversations	CONVER_DATA1_SS	Customers, Conversations, Update Conversations, Conversations Accounts Receivable, Customer Interactions, Conversations, View/Update Conversations, Conversations Numerous other navigation paths are available for this page.	Enter details for a conversation, including review information, reference amount, keywords, and the customer contact. Enter multiple conversation entries for a conversation.
References	CONVER_DATA2_SS	Customers, Conversations, Update Conversations, References Accounts Receivable, Customer Interactions, Conversations, View/Update Conversations, References Numerous other navigation paths are available for this page.	Link a conversation with a reference, such as an invoice, purchase order, or receivables item.
Item Activity	ITEM_DATA2	Click the View Item Activity link on the References page.	Review or update details for a receivables item.
Attachments	CONVER_DATA5_SS	Customers, Conversations, Update Conversations, Attachments Accounts Receivable, Customer Interactions, Conversations, View/Update Conversations, Attachments Numerous other navigation paths are available for this page.	Add, view, or delete conversation attachments, such as Microsoft Word™ documents, Microsoft Excel™ spreadsheets, and images.
Send Notification	PT_WF_NOTIFY	Click the Notify button on the Conversations, References, and Attachments pages.	Create an email notification with a link to the conversation.

Entering Conversations

Access the Conversations page (Customer, Conversations, Update Conversations or Accounts Receivable, Customer Interactions, Conversations, View/Update Conversations, Conversations).

Attachments Exist

Click to access the Attachments page, where you can view an attached file. This link is available only if the conversation has existing attachments.

Status

Displays the current status of the conversation.

The conversations statuses are:

New

This status displays when you create a new conversation.

Open

Closed

Description

Enter a description of the conversation to help identify a conversation when searching for conversations.

Subject and Sub-Topic

(Optional) Select a subject and subtopic from the available options that you set up on the Conversation Subject Topics page and the Conversation Subject page. This detail helps you identify the conversation when searching for conversations.

Promise of Payment

Select this check box to indicate that this conversation is a promise date conversation. The promise status will be set to Open. Once a conversation is marked as a promise of payment conversation, the collections analyst must enter a promise date and the amount that the customer promised to pay in order to save the conversation. A promise conversation, once saved, cannot be converted back to a regular conversation.

The selection of this check box determines the group boxes that display on the Conversations page.

If you do not select this check box, the Review, Follow Up and Reference Totals group boxes will be shown and the Promise of Payment group box will be hidden

If you do select this check box, the Promise of Payment group box will be shown and the Review, Follow Up and Reference Totals group boxes will be hidden

Promise of Payment

Promise Date	Enter the date that the customer promised the collections analyst to make the payment. This is a required field if you selected the Promise of Payment check box.
Promise Amount	Enter the amount that this customer has promise to pay on the selected Promise Date. This is a required field if you selected the Promise of Payment check box.
Currency	Displays the currency associated with the selected customer. You can override this currency.
Tolerance Days	Displays a default value, which is derived from the days that you entered on the Promise Date Options page for a Setid and customer or SetID and customer group. (Set Up Financials/Supply Chain, Product Related, Receivables, Credit/Collections, Promise Date Options) Tolerance days are used by the Condition Monitor to determine whether a promise has been kept, is still open, or has been broken. If you did not enter a value in this field on the Promise Date Options page, there will be no tolerance for promised payments that are late. The Condition Monitor will add the tolerance days to the promise date to determine if the promise has been kept or broken.
Payment Tolerance	Displays a default value, which is derived from the Payment Tolerance percentage that you entered on the Promise Date Options page for a Setid and customer or SetID and customer group. (Set Up Financials/Supply Chain, Product Related, Receivables, Credit/Collections, Promise Date Options) Payment tolerance percentage is used when a customer sends a payment for an amount that is less than the promised amount. This percentage Payment tolerance determines if the payment that is received from the customer, which is less than the promised amount, satisfies the promise. If the payment is not satisfactory, further action will be taken.
Confidence	Select the degree of confidence that you have that this customer will make this payment from one of these values: High Medium Low
Broken Promise Action	If the Condition Monitor determines that a promise has been broken, it triggers the broken promise action. If the action is assigned to a specific user, an action item will be created for the broken promise user id that appears on this page.
User ID	Displays the userid of the user assigned to the broken promise action. You can override this field value.
Done	Select this check box indicate when a broken promise action has been completed and removed from the action list for this user. This indicates that the promise has been broken and closes the promise.
Override Promise Status	The promise status field is updated only by component logic or the Condition Monitor. You can override the promise date by selecting this check box, which this action will be recorded in the conversation record when it is saved. The user could override the override and thereby erase the record of a manual update. This is a corner case and will be acceptable.
Override Reason	Select your reason for manually overriding the promise status.
Promise Status	Displays a default status of Open when you create a conversation with a promise date. Condition Monitor updates this promise status as either Kept or Broken. depending on the actions of the user. You must select the Override Promise Status check box to access this field. Once the field is enabled, you can select: Open Kept Broken Cancelled If you select this value, the promise is cancelled and the data cannot be used as a metric.

Promise Review

Date	Select a date to review this promise.
Action	Select a follow up action to perform based on a review of this promise.
User ID	Select the user id of the user that you want to assign to the selected review action.
Done	Select this check box when the action is completed. The user id assigned to the action selects this check box after completing the selected action. Once the user selects this check box, Condition Monitor will not create action items for the user id selected for the review.
Supervisor	Select this check box if the promise payment needs to be reviewed by a supervisor. If this check box is selected, this promise conversation will appear in the Supervisor Review Needed component.
Status	Displays a default value of New when you select the Supervisor Review check box. Select a status of either Incomplete or Reviewed depending on the actions of the supervisor.
Follow Up	Refer to Follow Up section in this chapter. See Follow Up.

Review

User ID	View an ID, which is the user ID by default, when you enter either a number of days or a date. You can change the user ID of the reviewer if necessary.
Done	Select when the review is complete.
Supervisor Review	Select to create an action for the individual whose user ID you entered in the User field. If you have Receivables, the Condition Monitor process creates the action the next time that you run the process and sends the user notification.
Date and Review Days	Enter a specific review date for the conversation review or enter the number of days after the current date to review the conversation. If you enter a number of days, the system updates the date; if you enter a date, the system calculates the number of days.
Status	Select a status for the review. Values are New, Incomplete, and Reviewed. This field is available only if you selected Supervisor Review.

Follow Up

Action	Select the type of follow-up action for the customer, such as CALL or VERIFY. When you press tab to exit this field, the system populates the User ID field with the user ID, and the Done check box becomes available so that you can specify whether the task is complete. You define follow-up actions on the Follow-Up Action page. If you have Receivables, you can define rules for the Condition Monitor process to create an action on the customer action list for the follow-up action and to send a notification to the owner who is specified in the rule.
User ID	Enter the user ID of the person who creates the follow-up letter.
Done	This option is selected by the Follow Up Letter process (AR_FOLLOWUP) when all items that are associated with a correspondence are paid and the letter is printed.
Letter	If you are responsible for receivable activities, you can follow up a conversation by mail. Select F for the letter code. The system marks it as Done when it creates the letter. You create the letters by running the Follow Up Letters Extract process (AR_FOLLOWUP) and printing the Follow Up Letter Crystal report (AR33004). Note. To print the standard text within a follow-up letter, you must enter a promise amount, a promise date, and a review date on the Conversations page. See Generating and Printing Follow-Up Letters.
Date	View the date that you created the follow-up letter.

Reference Amount

Amount	Enter the amount associated with the referenced items for this conversation. This is an open field because all items being referenced in the conversation can be different that all outstanding items. In addition, the currency can be changed and the field is used for forecasting. Therefore, it is up to the user and the business process to determine how to populate the amount and currency fields.
Currency	Enter the currency for the value in the Amount field. The system automatically populates this field with the customer's base currency. You can change this value if the promise amount currency and the base currency are different.
Promise Date	Enter the date by which you expect to receive payment. When a value is present in this field, the system no longer updates the Amount field if you change the referenced items.
Confidence	Select a confidence level for receiving the payment by the promise date. Values are High, Medium, and Low.

Keywords

Keyword1, Keyword2, and Keyword3

Enter up to three keywords to categorize conversations for easier retrieval. You define keywords on the Keywords page.

Conversation Entries

Add conversation entries for each conversation that you have with a customer and for each issue that is related to a conversation.

Add Conversation Entry	Click to add a new row to the Conversation Entries scroll area.
Contact ID	Enter the customer contact information to record with whom you spoke. When you move out of the field, the system automatically populates the Telephone and Extension fields based on the information that you entered on the Contact Phone and Type page.
Visible	Select if you want self-service users (customers, brokers, and salespeople) to view the conversation on the Receivables self-service pages.
Comments	Enter the text that you want to record for the conversation.
	Click this button to check the spelling of the comments entered.
Delete Entry	Click this button to delete a saved entry. The Delete Entry button is available only if the conversation entry was created through Receivables, the Visible check box is deselected, and the entry creator's user ID matches the user ID of the user deleting the entry. The button is inactive once you have assigned a Contact ID. In addition, you cannot delete or edit an entry that the customer created in eBill Payment.
Edit Entry	Click to edit existing comments.

Associating Conversations With References

Access the References page (Accounts Receivable, Customer Interactions, Conversations, View/Update Conversations, References).

Include Closed Information

Select to associate closed items in Receivables with the conversation.

Qualifier

Select the type of reference to link to the conversation. Depending on the selection, additional fields appear where you enter the reference information. Values are:

BA: Enter a buying agreement ID.

BI: Enter an invoice, business unit, and customer.

CT: Enter a contract number, business unit, and customer.

D: Enter a document number in the Reference ID field.

I: Enter an item ID, business unit, and customer ID. Also enter an item line number if applicable.

L: Enter a bill of lading in the Reference ID field.

P: Enter a purchase order number in the Reference ID field.

PY: Enter a payment ID in the Reference ID field and also prompt for the business unit and customer.

QU: Enter a quote and prompt for an order number, business unit, and customer.

RM: Enter an RMA number, business unit, and customer.

SO: Enter a sales order number, business unit, and customer.

View Item Activity

Click to access the Item Maintenance component, where you view details for a Receivables item. This link is available only if you select I for the qualifier.

Note. If you link items to conversations on the Item List page or on the Item Maintenance component and you have selected an item or multiple items, the system automatically populates the reference information.

Attaching Files to Conversations

Access the Attachments page (Accounts Receivable, Customer Interactions, Conversations, View/Update Conversations, Attachments).

Attach

Click to attach a file to a conversation. After you select a file by using the Browse field, click Upload. The file name appears in the Attached File field.

Enter a description for the file, if needed.

Delete	Click to remove a file attachment from the conversation.
View	Click to open the attached file.

Sending Notifications of Conversations

Access the Send Notification page (click the Notify button on the Conversations, References, and Attachments pages).

To, CC (copy), and BCC (blind copy)	Enter the email addresses of the individuals to whom you want to send a URL for the conversation. The URL provides a link to the conversation.
Message	Enter text for the email message.

Attachments Exist	Click to access the Attachments page, where you can view an attached file. This link is available only if the conversation has existing attachments.
Status	Displays the current status of the conversation. The conversations statuses are: New This status displays when you create a new conversation. Open Closed
Description	Enter a description of the conversation to help identify a conversation when searching for conversations.
Subject and Sub-Topic	(Optional) Select a subject and subtopic from the available options that you set up on the Conversation Subject Topics page and the Conversation Subject page. This detail helps you identify the conversation when searching for conversations.
Promise of Payment	Select this check box to indicate that this conversation is a promise date conversation. The promise status will be set to Open. Once a conversation is marked as a promise of payment conversation, the collections analyst must enter a promise date and the amount that the customer promised to pay in order to save the conversation. A promise conversation, once saved, cannot be converted back to a regular conversation. The selection of this check box determines the group boxes that display on the Conversations page. If you do not select this check box, the Review, Follow Up and Reference Totals group boxes will be shown and the Promise of Payment group box will be hidden If you do select this check box, the Promise of Payment group box will be shown and the Review, Follow Up and Reference Totals group boxes will be hidden